New bill could help save lives

Assemblyman Tom Harman from neighboring Huntington Beach is looking

to beef up the training of lifeguards throughout California.

He is pushing a bill that would require lifeguard training across

the state to meet a more stringent set of standards, set by the

United States Lifesaving Assn. The bill is sponsored by the Newport

Beach Lifeguard Assn.

As it is now, the state has set no mandated training standards or

regulations for lifeguards on minimum training received or equipment

used.

While training is top-notch in many of our coastal cities, such as

Newport Beach, that same level is not the standard across the board.

Training is not even the same for lifeguards from one end of the city

to the other. Some stretches are operated and maintained by the city

while the rest is controlled by the state. Does that make it safer to

swim from one block to the next? It shouldn’t.

That’s what makes Harman’s idea a solid one. Anyone living here

should be able to know they can travel anywhere up and down the coast

and find the same knowledgeable care.

Sadly, there will be a different number of lifeguards watching

from city to city and beach to beach. State beaches are perilously

low on lifeguards because of the state’s budget crisis. The state

Department of Beaches and Parks therefore is asking swimmers and

beachgoers to take extra care -- as it always should.

The ocean is a dangerous place -- especially if you are not

trained to handle it.

Just last year, while Newport Beach was fortunate to be free of

any drownings, the Pacific Ocean claimed four lives off Huntington

Beach. The majority of these happened when no lifeguard was on duty.

There will be fewer lifeguards on duty -- and for less time -- each

year with all the cutbacks, so swimmers need to take extra caution

and beachgoers who do not know how to swim should not go in the water

when there is no lifeguard present.

But during the height of summer, when all the towers are manned,

beachgoers should be secure in the fact that California -- all the

city and state beaches -- have expertly-trained lifeguards watching

over them.

Harman’s bill would guarantee that, which makes it a plan well

worth backing.